From Publishers Weekly
Despite using the word mojo in the subtitle and citing inspiration he received from 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary, this guide to better management isn’t for hippies. Yes, Conley started the California boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre Hospitality with the Phoenix Hotel, once a haven for faded rock stars. And yes, he quotes liberally from rebel CEOs who surf. But Conley’s book is packed with thoughtful, instructional stories and advice for entrepr…
Buy Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow at Amazon
Chip Conley has a bold vision – he wants to use his company as an instrument to make the world a better place. Rarely have I heard a businessman state his vision so boldly and this alone deserves a cheer.
Joie de Vivre – a lot of persons will learn to pronounce this soon! – is a boutique hotel chain and each property is unique. I have stayed at two and I can testify that the servce is outstanding. If ever you find yourself in San Francisco stay at the Miyako in the heart of Japantown. The faux ricepaper screens and artwork will make you feel as if you are in Japan and the deep granite soak tub and private sauna in the suite will round out the feeling.
Chip draws heavily from the work of Abraham Maslow in running his business. Maslow, as any MBA will tell you, is the guy who came up with the notion of the “hierarchy of needs” which postulates that all humans have basic needs for things like food and shelter and, as these are satisfied, higher order needs like belonging and esteem open up. At the top is “self-actualization” which is a need to realize one’s full potential. What I did not know till I read this book is that Maslow had spent a lot of time pondering the implications of his theory for business and had actually recorded his thoughts in books many of which are now out of print. I will now scour the Internet for these.
Chip’s genius is that he came up with an organized and disciplined method of applying these principles to his operations. The book is basically divided into three parts – one dealing with employees, one with customers and the final one with investors. For each of these, he offers tips on how to meet their lower order needs and then lead the way to them fulfilling their higher order needs and seeing that they are doing so.
He walks his talk. For example, during the double whammy of the dot.com meltdown and the 9/11 induced travel recession the hotel industry in California fell off a cliff. Conley took no salary for more than three years maxing out his credit cards to live and persuaded his senior executives to take 10% pay cuts. In his own words “…you make the right choice and acknowledge that yur lowest-paid employees deserve the greatest support during the most difficult times.” What a contrast from the typical approach of firing dozens of the rank and file while preserving top-management perks!
Half of Joie de Vivre’s employees clean toilets and make beds, but Chip has them feeling valued and and instituted recognition programs that move them up Maslow’s hierarchy. For example, even chambermaids get to stay free for a couple of nights at any of the chain hotel so they can experience the service as a customer. I want to make an important point here and this I got from personal conversations with him. He doesn’t just make employess FEEL valued. He DOES value them and looks out for what he can do to make their lives more meaningful. In fact his life’s meaning derives from success in doing so. So there are things like sabbaticals for employess and many other perks that you willfind out about when you read the book.
Customers are easy to fit in to the hierarchy. A lot has been written about how to deliver great customer service and Chip does his bit with things like clearly communicating what each of his hotels stands for. He trains all his employees – particularly porters, desk clerks and others who interact with guests – to lookout for ways in which to delight customers. Thus, for example, a guest celebrating a birthday will receive a cake or special gift. Good section with lots of examples from other companies, but nothing stand-out here.
Investors are another story. I have never heard it explicitly mentioned that entrepreneurs should satisfy investors basic need – for return on investment and safety of principal for instance – and then move them higher up the scale as well. But Chip does this in various ways from only selecting investors who are aligned with his own values to drawing them into his vision for what each property is and can be. He describes a process where every consittuency, including investors, provides ideas about how to uniquely position each prospective hotel.
Conley totally disagrees with conventional wisdom that states 1) Money is the primary motivator for employees. He demonstrates that they come alive when you address thier higher order needs. 2) Customers stay loyal when they are satisfied. Satisfied customers are the minimum level to stay in business. You have to continually earn their loyalty by delighting them. and 3) Investors are exclusively focused on financial returns. This is important, but they will cut you a lot of slack if you keep them informed and make them feel as if they are in a cause that they believe in.
So, read this book and become an entrepreneur and do likewise. And please, pretty please with sugar and cream, let me buy some your stock BEFORE you go public.
When times get tough for business, sometimes the top brass takes on an approach that seems to emulate the Bataan Death March; new business gets priority, old customers are seen as cash cows or liabilities and employees either get with a harsh new program or get cut down. Author Chip Conley was CEO of Joie de Vivre, a chain of boutique hotels and when his firm faced a horrifying double-digit downturn, he turned to Maslow rather than Nietzsche for his inspiration. Following the precepts of Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of self-actualization where one strives for personal satisfaction and self-realization at the top, he turned his company around and discovered some truths along the way. You can revitalize your business and make a warmer, more nurturing environment for clients and company alike along the way.
During the downturn, Conley read over 100 publications and books on business, focusing on relationships because he realized that the boutique hotel business especially depends on personalization. Since hotels are a service organization, relationships with longstanding customers are important. Old customers cost less to maintain and provide greater profit. Likewise, employee loyalty has a great impact on business, especially the hospitality industry. Using the peak pyramid, Conley created a culture of recognition, realizing that people will often go the extra mile to get a thank-you rather than a bonus check.
The pyramid of self-actualization as revised for customers is as follows:
For the levels 1 through 5, the Maslow Pyramid is Physiological (base needs), safety, social belonging, esteem and then self-actualization. Translated to a hotel guest, this is, according to Conley, a comfortable and clean bed (physiological), well-lit parking and electronic door locks (safety), responsive staff (social belonging), feeling like a VIP (esteem) and Identify Refreshment (appealing to what the client aspires to be–for example, having avant-garde art in a hotel that caters to the offbeat and trendy.)
Conley didn’t stop there; he used the idea of Maslow’s Pyramid to deal with investors, who are always nervous when things look glum.
This is a thoughtful book and an inspiring story of a business turnaround that created a more engaging and appealing environment when the business was eventually recovered. I’d recommend this for anyone who wants to take their own business to new levels or for any student of business who would like to read of a very thoughtful approach to business relationships on all levels.
You don’t have to have an emotional bone in your body to find useful advice in this book. Chip Conley built a great company and weathered the dot.com meltdown by putting people first, both his employees and his customers. Sounds tough, especially for left-brainers, but the Maslow pyramid gives a framework that even the most rational mind can work with. Treat employees fairly, recognize their accomplishments and give them something to believe in. It’s as simple as that.
Conley has good advice for pleasing customers and investors, too, but I found his technique for bringing the best out of your employees most useful. Despite the fact that most of his employees don’t have college degrees and half don’t speak English as their first language, he’s managed to both keep them and keep them happy. Those same techniques can work for any company. The point is that people are people everywhere and Maslow brilliantly realized what motivates all of us. Conley maps this to today’s business environment with great examples and explanations.
Simply put, this book will make you a better manager. Get it!